By Vendetta Mtunzi
HE religiously took the advice of his Sensei — a Japanese term for a karate teacher or master — that his skills are only meant for the ring but never for ordinary members of the public.
As such he endures the occasional thorough beating from his wife but despite being trained in martial arts he never retaliates.
That’s the story of Kennas Khumalo who is often heard by his neighbours wailing in agony from beatings allegedly administered by his wife Flatah Ndlovu.
The couple lives in Mpopoma suburb in Bulawayo.
It’s not unusual for neighbours to see or hear the father of two pleading for forgiveness as the wife beats him up with an electric chord.
For all the pain and humiliation that he endures, Khumalo opened up to B-Metro.
“My wife beats me up so badly using anything she can lay her hands on including an electric chord and sometimes even bites me. The scars that you see on my arms are not from fighting other people but were inflicted by my wife,” said Khumalo as he showed this reporter injuries from the alleged beatings.
Asked why he doesn’t leave his seemingly abusive wife, Khumalo replied: “She threatens to commit suicide if I leave her.”
A neighbour, who is a friend to Khumalo but requested anonymity, described how the tormented man was beaten up like a child being punished by a parent.
“It’s so sad to hear a grown man screaming like a child being disciplined by a parent when he is being beaten by his wife. Every time he arrives home late or does not give his wife money, he gets a hiding,” said the neighbour.
The alleged “husband beater” Ndlovu doesn’t see anything wrong with “disciplining” the father of her children. In fact, she calls him a whiner who cries whenever she raises the whip.
“It is not like I beat my husband, we do fight but he whines a lot, he is very emotional and always cries when we disagree,” said Ndlovu. B-Metro.
